MeRA25

A parliamentary committee has given approval in principle to a bill opening the way for the purchase of 18 Dassault-made Rafale fighter jets from France for a total of 2.5 billion euros ($3.04 billion).

The leader of the leftist MeRA25 party, Yanis Varoufakis, submitted a proposal to Parliament on Tuesday for the establishment of an inquiry committee to investigate the causes of Greece's financial meltdown and bankruptcy in 2010 and its subsequent international bailouts.

Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias will brief representatives of the opposition parties on Thursday on the recent defense and foreign policy cooperation agreement and the Joint Declaration of Strategic Partnership signed by Greece and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) last week.

The meeting is part of the regular briefing of parliamentary parties on current foreign policy issues.

Greece's National Council for Foreign Policy was convening on Wednesday to brief opposition parties about Turkey's activities and the ministry's new plan operational plan.

The mayor of Aegina island claimed in comments on Saturday that former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, head of the Mera25 party, refused to stop for a police inspection on the island where he has a summer home.

According to the mayor, Yiannis Zorbas, police had been conducting routine inspections last Thursday when they signaled to Varoufakis to pull over.

Mera25 MPs will give up half of their salaries to three hospitals in Athens, Thessaloniki and Crete, for as long as the lockdown continues, the anti-austerity party has announced.
Mera25 has nine deputies in the 300-seat Parliament.

Former Finance Minister Yianis Varoufakis will upload all Eurogroup conversations he surreptitiously recorder to his party's website later Saturday.

Greece's former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, who served during the leftist SYRIZA government's first term in 2015, has said that he will be publishing his recordings of negotiations with Greece's eurozone partners and creditors on March 16.

The events of early 2015, when SYRIZA was negotiating austerity terms with Greece's creditors, stole the limelight again yesterday in Parliament, with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis stressing the need for a public discussion on what exactly happened in the first half of 2015 when SYRIZA came to power and negotiated Greece's bailout.

The head of Mera25 party and former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis on Friday submitted to Parliament an envelope allegedly containing his secret audio recordings from the Eurogroup meetings while he was negotiating for Greece's SYRIZA-led government in the first half of 2015.
Varoufakis said he expected House speaker Kostas Tasoulas to forward the content to Greek lawmakers.